The playing venue was at the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino & Convention Resort in the City of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, South Africa. Guaranteed total prize fund was raised to R205 000 = approx 20.000 EUR.

The South African Open Blitz Championship 2011 was played on 25th June and England’s GM Gawain Jones convincingly won the title with a crushing 9/9 score. Second is Indian hope IM Grover Sahaj with 8.0 points.

The Open events continued with massive participation of 388 players in the Main Event and 324 in the B Section.

Short succeeded in his intentions revealed in an interview with Vijay Kumar, however Jones was declared the winner on slightly better tiebreak score. German junior IM Niclas Huschenbeth reached excellent position in the shared 3rd place.